


Plance for the Soul

by Rynosaur



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Freeform, Main focus is pidge x lance, Occationally there will be other characters, Oneshot, Other, Plance plance baby, Prompt Fic, So i tagged them but yea, flashfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-18
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-19 00:40:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12399528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rynosaur/pseuds/Rynosaur
Summary: Flashfics based on daily prompts from the Pidgance Positivity Discord Sever.// it's meant for us to constantly write and improve our writing !!!! And enjoy writing pidge x lance moment ; )





	1. Homesick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unedited

When Lance reached his house, after many years of fighting up above in space, he was embraced by his family, his friends, and surprisingly, those that used to despise him such as his third Aunt. 

There was a celebration, a huge cake for him, his favourite snacks and many people congratulated him for coming back home.

He was home. He was where he wanted to be so badly when he stayed aove in space, life on the line. He was  _ safe _ , at  _ home _ , with his family and the people he loved. 

But there was still that familiar tug he has in his heart as he embraces his family, eating cakes with his nephews and nieces, catching up with his friends from earth. He was still homesick, and it pains him because he doesn’t know what he’s missing. There is a gap somewhere in him and he can’t seem to explain why it was still there. It should be filled, shouldn’t it? He has arrived home. 

_ Home. _ He thinks as he looks around the house. Some furniture has moved from their previous positions he remembers them to be, some are completely discharged. The once yellowish walls have been repainted to a pale green and he feels as if he’s in another alternate universe. 

“Something wrong?” Lance’s mother asks. She has more wrinkles on her face, more softness and fragility in her voice compared to how he remembered - strong and loud - and he nods as a reply. 

“It’s just… I need some time to adjust.” 

His mother looks at him with a small smile, a hand over his as she nods to show she understands. “We are all happy you’re back, my little lion.” 

Something in Lance shifts.  _ Lion _ . His thoughts swirl around Blue,  _ his own lion _ , and then he’s back at the cockpit, cheering whenever Blue and him managed to defeat an army of battleships. 

He missed her. 

Lance then remembers the blue lightings of his room back at the castle ship just right before he sleeps. It’s different at his house. He remembers the bland yet bitter taste of the green goo he had to survive with. He remembers Coran, he remembers Allura, Shiro, Keith, Hunk, and then he remembers Pidge. 

A chime breaks his train of thought and he flinches slightly at the abrupt sound. There is hardly any sounds in space, he realised, and this causes his ears to be more sensitive. 

“Ah,” his mother smiles. “It’s Isabella.” she picks up the phone and walks away. 

Lance takes a while to remember his older sister isn’t at home anymore. She’s found a lover and settled down. She has kids now for goodness sake, but the concept of time and change is wrapped to him and all he can do is give a small smile. 

“Mamá*?” he asks as his mother turns to look at him. 

She hums in reply, however, still on the phone. 

“I’ll be taking a walk.”

She agrees and continues with the conversation with Lance’s older sister. 

\---

Lance stuffs his hands into his pockets. Usually, in such a pose, he’ll slouch, but the many years of wearing the paladin armour makes it more comfortable to stand up straight - so he does. He’s just called Hunk, catching up with him and how he’s family is doing, and he’s glad to hear he was alright. 

“Do you… I don’t know bud,” he said through the phone with Hunk. “I mean, do you feel homesick…?” 

Hunk takes a minute and eventually, he answered, “Sometimes.” 

At least it’s good to know Lance isn’t alone. 

He kicks a few rocks on the asphalt, walking a few more meters until he spots a bench and sits on it. He sighs, closing his eyes. His heart still aches and he wishes it’ll all just stop. Isn’t this what he wanted? To go home? To experience rain? Normalcy? Turns out it doesn’t seem to be enough. 

He opens his eyes and stares at the sky, wondering how Allura and Coran are doing, wandering if anything will fall from the sky like the first day of the whole Voltron fiasco. Nothing.

He looks around him instead, looking at the tall high rise buildings that makes him feel insignificant. He looks at how their structures have changed, and he looks at how everything around him has changed. It hits him hard like a brick, that he isn’t part of earth anymore. Not this earth he hardly can find familiarity anymore. 

He closes his eyes, not particularly tired, but the changes he has to face since his return is draining. 

“What are you doing here?”

Lance opens an eye to see who it is, but even if he doesn’t, he knows who it is. “Pidge?” 

Pidge gestures to the empty space beside Lance and Lance nods. She sits. 

“So… how’s with fitting into society?” 

Lance shrugs. “Not as well as I thought.” He moves to lean forward, forearm resting on his knees. “What about you?”

It’s Pidge’s turn to shrug and she gives a perfunctory “It’s alright I guess.”

They both sit in silence then after, watching as people bustle by, watching the city as the sky from it’s bright blue hue changes to a dashing dark blue. 

Nothing much happened. Pidge and Lance just sat there. Maybe a few small conversations and jokes were shared once in awhile, but majority of the interactions was the things not said. 

Pidge yawns, her eyes half-open, but she doesn’t budge. 

“Want to go home?” he asks as he stands, but Pidge holds onto his hand. She’s looking down at the floor, but her grip on Lance is tight, and Lance sits back down. “No?” 

Usually, he will pull a joke to raise his ego, like say something along the lines of “Want to spend time with the all amazing Lance?” but it surprises him that such a joke goes over his head. 

“Not yet,” Pidge confesses. “I like your presence. It makes me feel… less homesick.”

Lance’s eyes widen. “You feel that too?” 

Pidge looks up to Lance, an eyebrow raised before saying meekly, “... Yeah?” 

“I feel that too, and I thought me and Hunk where the only ones.”

Pidge scoffs. “That’s unlikely. I bet 10 bucks that Shiro feels homesick too.”

“No way! Shiro has been away from home for so long, he won’t be. He’s finally back.” 

Pidge looks at Lance, amused, and Lance knows immediately he’s not catching on to what Pidge means. He seldom does even after all those times spent together. 

“Everything has changed, Lance. The earth isn’t the only thing that has changed, we’ve changed too.”

Lance looks at Pidge’s hair and her clothes. It feels weird to see her in any colour but green. “I know.”

“Yeah… and so, since we’ve changed too, I guess so has our definition of home.”

Lance mumbles a small ‘oh’ and suddenly everything starts to fit into place. He’s back on earth, with his family and friends, but he isn’t home,  _ yet _ .

“Well, then, what’s your new definition of home?”

Pidge shrugs. “The usual, my family… but, I guess… you guys are also part of my family.”

Lance feels a little touched and his heart, for the first time from his time back on Earth, grows warm. It doesn’t ache, maybe slightly, but he’s more touched than broken. 

Lance looks far ahead as more people bustle by them, not even glancing at both of them, and slowly, he laughs. 

Pidge takes a while, a little flabbergasted at first, but she laughs along. People glance at them like their idiots, but that doesn’t bother them. 

“That was cheesy,” Lance comments.

“It was,” Pidge says between laughs. “But, it feels really good to laugh with you again.”

Lance smiles, “Same here.”

Pidge finally takes her hand away from Lance and stands. “I guess we can go home now.”

Lance stands as well. “Am I not your home?” 

Pidge gives a slight and playful scowl. “Don’t praise yourself too much sharpshooter.”

“Okay, but, we should meet again sometime soon. With the rest as well.”

Pidge gives him a sheepish smile. “Yeah, we should.”

Lance laughs and he bids her farewell, taking her updated number, before heading back, feeling more filled than ever before. 

  
He’s found his new home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Used google translator. Might not be accurate.


	2. Star

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt was "STARS" and even before I did brainstorming, I remembered [this song ](https://youtu.be/JGHfIR6PK7M) (Dead Hearts) by star and it just clicked that I should do something heavily based on the interactions between the male and female singer as Lance and Pidge respectively in a zombie / dystopian au. I tried to use S.T.A.R as a way to say "I am writing about 'stars'" but please don't ask me because I don't know either.
> 
> Unedited

“Pidge!” Lance shouts, making his way through rubble and debris to reach her. “Pidge!” he shouts once again as he sees her figure at a distance, eyes straining hard on the ground - like she’s having a staring contest with it. 

Her hair is messy, jabbing the sky at random, and she’s shaking slightly, Lance notices. 

“ _Tell me, everything that happened_ -” he’s cut off by his own breathing, panting when he comes to a stop. He’s resting his hands on his knees, body forward as he gasps for breath. “ _Tell me everything you saw,_ ” he says a little less rushed, and quieter as he reaches to hold Pidge’s shoulder as a form of comfort. 

Pidge doesn’t speak, and continues to shake as she slowly cranks her head to look at Lance. 

Lance tenses under her dead gaze, and he’s worried about how she’s shaking, mouth moving trying to form words. Never has he seen Pidge in such a state.

The area reeks off rotten flesh, moanings can be heard outside as an army of dead people slam and beat against the temporary barrier Lance had created. 

“ _They… they had lights inside their eyes_ ,” Pidge finally says in a meek whisper. Lance almost couldn’t catch it. “ _They had lights inside their eyes,_ ” she repeats after finding a little of her voice. Tears, ever so slowly, starts to build up in her eyes, and she clutches Lance tightly like he is her life support. 

“ _Did you see the closing window? Did you hear the slamming door?_ ” He drops his weapon - a very stupid thing to do - but he needs all he has to hold Pidge. She seems so fragile, like she might just break at any given moment. 

“ _They moved forward and my heart died,_ ” she answers, not answering Lance’s question at all. Her stare drops to the ground and her shoulders shake. “ _They… they moved forward and my heart died._ ” 

Lance cups her face with a hand, shifting her gaze gingerly back to him. “Pidge, _please tell me what they look like. Did they seem afraid of you?_ ” his voice is urgent, he’s hungry for answers, but Pidge gives him none.

“Lance, listen to me,” she pleads, emotions slowly coming back to her voice. “ _They were… kids I once knew. They were kids I once knew!_ ” Her voice rises with each syllable, and Lance has to hold her from running out of the area, to where rotten flesh and bodies waits to end the both of them.

“Pidge, now it’s not the time, tell me, please."

Pidge, from her dead stare, slowly morphs her expression into one of anger. “ _I can say it but you won’t believe me, you say you’ll do, but you don’t deceive me._ ” She swats Lance’s hand away from her shoulder, eyes wandering to find an exit. Lance takes a step between her and whatever she’s looking at, and the tears that she held back before falls.

“ _It’s hard,_ ” she mumbles as she sniffles. “ _It’s hard to know they’re out there-_ ” she rubs her eyes with the base of her palm, trying to smear the tears away “ _-It’s hard to know that you still care_.”

Lance gives Pidge a solemn look. A pang of pain punches him in his stomach, and he looks at Pidge, betrayed. “I do care,” he mutters out. He wants to embrace Pidge into a hug, but then he hears the sound of something breaking.

His barrier. It’s falling apart. 

The muffled moans now become clearer, and Lance shudders as he sees a green, rotten hand reach in through a small gap. 

Pidge opens her mouth to say something else, but soon enough she’s silenced by the loud crack, and Lance’s barrier’s falls. He grabs her by the wrist, picking up his weapon he dropped to shoot those that gets to close to them, and runs to opposite way. 

\----

“S.T.A.R was a mistake” is all Pidge says as Lance interrogates her, pleading her, begging her, to tell him what happened at the area, what she saw. What is that thing that makes Pidge so mortified, so afraid that it left her speechless, emotionless and quiet. Not anymore did Pidge bicker with Lance when he said something obviously wrong, not a single action from her when he gives her a pick up line.

Guess he’s alone in this, is he?

No. Lance gives himself a mental facepalm.

He can’t just leave her, they are a team. Pidge and him, he promised her to stick together, he promised himself he’ll stay with her. 

He grabs some food from the small stash of food supplies they have and pours her a cup of water from the daisins water bottles they luckily found a while back. He hands it to Pidge.

Pidge looks up and she’s shaking once again. This time, however, her stare is less dead, and in turn it’s filled with an emotion. Even if it’s the big brown eyes of someone who probably saw something they shouldn’t, Lance would take that anyday than a cold, hard stare. Everyone around him seems to have those eyes, and it’s a cruel reminder to how alone it is to being alive. 

“S.T.A.R was a mistake, my mistake.” Pidge takes a deep breath. “I… I caused this epidemic, and I saw them Lance, I saw them.” 

Lance nods, holding her hand to remind her he’s there. She’s safe, for now, under the shelter of their base. For now. 

Lance doesn’t know who “them” Pidge is referring too, but he asks more. “Did you touch them?” he pauses. “ _Did you hold them? Did they follow you?_ ”

Pidge stares blankly at the stale food Lance has given her. She doesn’t eat. “ _They make me feel like I’m falling down._ ” She repeats herself and her voice quivers.

Lance knows Pidge isn’t yet in the right state to press on and further ask, but he needs to know what she saw. He needs to know, what this whole S.T.A.R is, why is Pidge involved, and most importantly, who is “them”. 

“ _Was there one you saw too clearly? Did they seem...too real to you?_ ”

Something Lance says makes Pidge flinch. She then stands, handling back the food. “You don’t believe me do you? You don’t at all.”

Lance gives her a weak smile, hands outstretched to try to make her sit. 

“I don’t even know if I can trust you anymore.”

Lance sighs, tired about how their conversations lately leads up to nothing. He misses the old Pidge, he misses the way she bickered with him, and most importantly, he misses her smile. 

There is nothing much to smile when the unfortunate had happened to the majority - people falling sick and being alive yet dead - but somehow, Pidge managed to smile and make him smile. He missed that. 

" _They were kids that I once knew_ ,” Pidge bitterly says, hands holding herself as if she knows she’ll break any moment as well. “The kids I worked with - I thought they were safe, but they ….aren’t….” 

Lance takes a step closer to Pidge, his desire to hug her from the very start getting the best of him. He envelopes her as she shivers, crying once again. 

“And-and I started this-”

“It’s not your fault. There was always dead hearts everywhere.” He rubs Pidge’s back in circles, trying to keep her calm as she sobs into his already dusty and dirty shirt. “ _Dead hearts are everywhere-_

_-now they’re all dead hearts to you._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Probably had lots of gramatical errors. My bad. I'm trying to improve :)


	3. Zombie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meAN, I wrote about zombies for the previous prompt so why not do it again? Heavily based on [this song ](https://youtu.be/ZPNqub966Tw) (no not by star this time) called Zombie song. Don't ask me about what is going on with Lance. He's not fully brain dead yet I guess.
> 
> Unedited

Their mission was to find hope, but Pidge thinks that’s redundant now. 

In front of her, was Lance, but he is not how she remembered him. Not at all. He’s limping towards her at a quicker pace, hands outstretched as he tries to take a hold of her. Usually zombies were much slower, and the smell of rotten flesh they reeked was exponential to how long they had the disease, so Pidge figured Lance turned only recently, his iconic pineapple smell faintly wafting around him.

She dodged, moving to the left as he lunged at her. Her barrel gun is heavy in her hands and she can’t raise it up to shoot him. This isn’t part of the plan. 

“Lance, snap out of it!” she shouts knowing very well it’s useless. There is no cure to the infection. Lance is not Lance, and neither does he know who Pidge is. 

Lance stumbles a bit from his previous lunge at Pidge and slowly, he turns his head. His skin is more pale, and he looks fresh. It would be hard to tell he was infected if not for how pale his dark blue eyes has become. He wasn’t bitten, Pidge makes quick mental note as Lance stables himself and turns. He hesitates for a while (Pidge sees something in his expression, but it’s too quick to catch) but soon he lunges at her again. 

Pidge tries to dodge again, but she stumbles back on her own feet and falls to the floor.

This is it, she thinks as Lance’s body starts to fall on her. She releases a small “ofph” on the impact and closes her eyes to wait for her end, but nothing as bad as she thought happened. Slowly, she opens her eyes and sees Lance doing nothing. His arms seems to want to wrap Pidge - like a hug. Confused but still wanting to be cautious, she gingerly pulls him apart from her and that expression of his Pidge could not catch before flashes across his face once again. 

“L-Lance?” she shutters, goosebumps crawling on her skin. “Wh-what’s going on?” her voice is stricken with fear and she holds the barrel gun she has outstretched, finger on the trigger, but does not shoot. 

Lance groans and he seems to be… frowning? 

Pidge looks around her, making sure there is no one else around. She tries to wrap her thought around Lance being a zombie, because the possibility of it is near zero. Something or someone infected him without biting him, and she’s worried it will come to get her as well. 

Lance moans, his voice harsh and cracks a bit as he takes a step forward. He’s making more inaudible noises and Pidge shushes him. He keeps quiet.

“What’s going on-” 

She hears a slow clap from behind Lance, and from a shadow, a figure with long, shiny hair comes out. “Pidge Gunderson,” the figure says and Pidge almost feels herself drop her gun. 

“Lotor,” she mumbles. 

Lance swirls around and snarls at Lotor.

Lotor looks at Lance with distaste, eyebrow furrows as he effectively hits Lance with a taser. “He’s lucky he got away before they could fully make him a zombie, but that’s not the point.” He blows at the taser, like a cowboy blowing smoke from a gun after a successful shot, and he takes a step over Lance’s limb body towards Pidge.

Pidge raises her gun. “Step any closer and you’ll be dead.”

Lotor gives raises an eyebrow, pouting a little. “Don’t you want to talk? Don’t you want to know why we wanted project S.T.A.R? Don’t you-” he smirks, nose high up in the air as he holds his gaze with Pidge with pride “-want to know why we didn’t vaccine you? You can be infected, with this.” He takes a syringe out, moving it about to examine it, and he smiles. 

Pidge flinched as she sees the syringe. She knows very well it is the project she worked on when she still had ties with Galra Co. She stays quiet, unable to form anything witty to say. Her hands are shaking as she aims the gun at his heart. She could shoot Lotor, but then that means she’ll lose information. She wants to know. (She also isn’t sure if Lance was her ally or not, so she’ll definitely need a spare bullet just in case he isn’t.)

Lotor continues, “S.T.A.R is a success because of you, so we should thank you, really, but you’d think the project was something to benefit humans?” he scoffed and grits his teeth. “Humans are pathetic and they filth the earth. They’re disgusting and we could have destroyed you all at once, but then, we realised, humanity deserve pain, for all you did.”

Pidge tastes iron in her mouth and she’s trying her best to not show she’s afraid of Lotor. “Just because of what a few people did to your kind?” Her finger is tense around the trigger. Pins and needles are forming in her hand and she’s feeling rigid all over. “Even if we might have done bad things in the past, we’ve treated you well, accepted your kind into our society. Why are you doing this?”

Lotor waves his hand in the air and dismisses her point. “Time is running out anyways. More soldiers will be here to take your zombified body away-” 

A loud “thwap” and Lotor falls head first. His taser slides across the floor and so does the syringe. Lance is standing behind him, producing a deep sound from the back of his throat as he steps on his unconscious body. Lance then looks at Pidge and makes more, less aggressive, noises as he approaches her. He takes the syringe and Pidge freezes, but he throw it away and soon, he’s running, grabbing Pidge along to who knows where. 

When both of them have escaped the building, the zombies that were crowding the building before has scattered. Lance doesn’t slow down, climbing over debris and rubble as skilled as before he was infected, and Pidge tries to catch up with her hand still held by Lance. 

“Lance!” she shouts and Lance slows down. He turns his head and makes sounds that sounds like he’s asking a question. Pidge blinks. “What did they do to you?”

Lance lets go of Pidge’s hands, examining his. He would look like the perfectly healthy Lance Pidge knows, but his skin is pale, and his dead pale eyes speaks volumes. 

Lance seems like he wants to say something, but he’s flinching and wincing as he tries to produce a proper syllable. Pidge takes his hand, and this time she leads him to their shack. She’ll solve this in a while, but now it’s not the time. Getting back to their base where the zombies were least likely to do any harm to them - her - is paramount now. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ending was probably really crappy. Sorry but :' ) not sorry.


	4. Unconditionally - Katty Perry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based of a song called [Unconditionally](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHimjVYsd6I) by Katty Perry! 
> 
> Unedited

> _ Oh no, did I get too close? _
> 
> _ Oh, did I almost see what's really on the inside? _
> 
> _ All your insecurities _
> 
> _ All the dirty laundry _
> 
> _ Never made me blink one time _
> 
> __

_ \--- _

 

Lance is cradling PIdge in his arms as she cries, head buried deep in the folds of his shirt. She’s tugging on it a little too much, the back of his collar seeming to sink into the skin of his neck, but he doesn’t tell and allows Pidge to continue tugging at it. If it makes her feel much better, he will allow it. 

He’s patting her head, whispering soft nothings to her as she sniffles. Silence falls upon the room and Lance knows she’s trying her best to not make a sound, but it fails and she’s wailing once again. 

He’s drawing circles on her back with his free hand and soon after embraces her tighter. He can feel his shirt sticking on his skin due from the tears and snot - just a little - but he ignores the slight discomfort as he changes his sayings of sweet nothings to hums of distant and classical lullabies, such as Elvis Presley’s ageless Can’t Help Falling In Love.

Lance knows how it feels like to break down and have nobody around. He knows very well how tiring it is to be falling apart slowly, but with no one to be a pillar of support. He knows it all too well with how the feeling of loneliness comes hand in hand with the action of crying in the dark - alone. So when he goes to find Pidge to tell her Coran had made food, he doesn’t expect Pidge to be sobbing in the corner. Pidge, their Pidge, his Pidge, the Pidge that tells everyone they will get through something if they trusted each other, keeping her emotions bottled and silent as she suffers alone. 

The only light in the room was from the dim light of her laptop and the only sound was her sniffling, mixed with the comforting disturbance of the sound of typing. She was still typing away as if the sounds and tears weren’t her’s, and at first, Lance couldn’t seem to move. 

“Pidge?” he says as he pulls apart from her, wanting to see her face. She ducks his gaze by looking down, hands close to her chest, one clinging to his shirt. She seems like she’s getting ready for the worst, and Lance’s knows very well that to Pidge, that means opening it and talking about why she is crying. 

“Pidge, I just want to ask if you’re fine with me shifting a little bit.”

Pidge perks up and her tears glimmer around her eyes. She takes a while to regain her breath and her voice, and finally, she speaks, “...sure.” She moves away from Lance, just a little, her hand gripping onto his shirt like it’s her lifeline, and Lance shifts into a more comfortable position. He wraps his arms around her, head resting on her head as he squeezes her in a ginger yet tight embrace - a small reminder that he’s here.

Pidge’s wailings have calmed a little, reducing to sniffles as Lance feels her breathing slowly becoming more stable. The quietness falls around them, but Lance doesn’t mind. 

Pidge shifts a little and Lance lifts his head from hers, leaning back a little to look at her big, brown eyes. “I’m sorry,” she simply says as her eyes lock with Lance’s only for a split second (but if Pidge was in the right mind, she would have said it was a millisecond) and she fiddles with her fingers, a look of guilt on her face as she stares at the wet splotch on Lance’s favourite shirt. She gives it a smear (as if it will help) and then, in a soft whisper, says, “I’m sorry you had to see…that side of me.”

Lance gives Pidge a frown as he places a hand behind Pidge’s head to pull her closer to him. “It’s okay,” he smiles as he leans back again to look at Pidge. “I show you that side of me too.”

Pidge rubs her eyes, trying her best not to cry again as she nods. “I guess…” she mumbles. “I don’t know what came over me,” she admits as she bites her lips, eyes once again at the floor. She’s embarrassed to meet his eyes, and she’s worried that if she does, he’ll see how much she’s being affected. She doesn’t want to explain - at least not now - and she doesn’t want Lance to ask her about it - at least not now. 

Pidge expects Lance to say something or ask questions like if she was okay or if there was anything she needed to talk about, but instead, he closes his eyes and sings in his sweet voice, an old song from Earth. 

Pidge catches the tune of the song and she laughs knowing very well he wants to hear her laugh. 

“Unconditionally by Katty Perry? Really?”

“Don’t disturb my groove, I was getting into it!”

Pidge laughs again, this time louder and less strained. A smile naturally forms on her face as she cuddles with Lance, his limbs intertwined with hers. His soft voice makes Pidge feel much calmer, and the lyrics he sings echoes in her head. 

Pidge snuggles in his embrace and slowly, her tiredness she has been trying to deny kick in. She closes her eyes and the last lines she hears Lance sing is:

> “ _I will love you unconditionally._ ”

She feels Lance giving her a kiss on her temple, and steadily, succumbs to her tiredness. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is Lance and Pidge on a couch cuddling or on the floor or somewhere else?? I don't know either but they're enjoying it so I guess we should just let them be???


	5. Food

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Birthday Keith! I love you a lot like how much I love plance and that says a lot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Frirndship plance?? A little hint to pinning pidge?? I will never know. 
> 
> Unedited

Two words: Keith’s Birthday.

That’s enough to make the kitchen a fusion of disaster and damage. Hunk is usually in charge of anything food related because he’s the best at it and it’s his passion, but today he is busy on a mission with Coran. Shiro, on the other hand, is busy trying to distract Keith while they prepare.

This leaves Lance and Pidge in charge of food duty while Allura decorates the castle. Pidge Lance and food? Not a good trio. 

“Okay Pidge, you’ll be my assistant,” Lance says as he rolls up his sleeves and washes his hands. He’s reading the recipe Hunk has left on the table and trying to figure out what the ingredients actually are. Elptarite doesn’t sound like flour or egg, and he doesn’t know what the heck it is, but they need a lot of it. A...  jozak? He glances at the notes Hunk has left but it’s swiped by Pidge. 

“Why am I your assistant?” she places the notes behind her back, swiftly dodging the lunges Lance makes to get the piece of paper back. “Why can’t we be equals? Why can’t you be my assistant?”

Lance stops trying and stands up tall. He crosses his hands and points towards her. “I know very well baking and cooking isn’t your thing.”

Pidge leans forward, glowering at Lance. “Oh yeah? But I bet I can make a better cake than you!” 

Lance leans in as well, their faces only inches apart, and he furrows his eyebrows, nodding firmly. “Oh it’s on Pidge. It’s on.”

He quickly turns back to the recipe and takes it before Pidge can, sticking his tongue out. Pidge huffs and keeps the notes Hunk gave and both of them start preparing at the far ends of the table.

Lance ponders about his plan. He has the recipe, he knows which ingredients to use, the only problem is the measurements. He looks up and he’s greeted with dark brown eyes, watching him attentively, waiting for him to pick up an ingredient. Right. Maybe having the ingredients isn’t to his advantage. He stares back at Pidge. It’s a staring contest for a while until Lance has an idea and takes up a pink bottle. He reads it and it says “Bottle scotch”. He looks at his recipe and smiles. It’s not in the list. He opens it and pours it all into a bowl, placing an empty bottle of bottle scotch for Pidge to use.

“Hey!” she shouts, throwing the empty bottle at Lance. “That’s cheating! You can’t just use up all the ingredients! I need some too.” 

Lance smiles apologetically, trying to not snicker. Pidge has fallen right into his trap. He hands over a bowl of bottle scotch and Pidge snatches it away. 

“I’m being a gentleman,” he says as he grabs another ingredient, the actual ingredient. He stares at the paper and tries to guess what the heck a quilado of goperb means. He takes a measuring instrument and carefully measures the amount he guesses (and hopes) it’s correct. 

When he places it down, Pidge picks it up and reads the notes, observing the instrument Lance uses to measure and using the notes for references.

This has been going on for a while - Lance using an ingredient, guessing the measurements while Pidge guesses the ingredients and measurements based on Lance’s reactions. 

Halfway through however, Pidge makes her way to Lance’s side of the table and takes a peep at the ingredients.

Lance doesn’t notice, busy reading the settings on the oven, but he does notice when Pidge raises a very good point for concern. 

“We probably should stop doing this. What if we poison ourselves. These are non-human foods. We will never know what they actually contain…”

Lance takes a while to think, tapping his chin in a comical manner. As much as he wants to retort to her with a witty remark, he can’t seem to find any. “Okay, you have a good point.” He reaches out for the note Hunk gave. “Guess we have to work together then.”

Pidge rolls her eyes. “If you had only said that instead of me being your ‘assistant’-” she does bunny ears to the word ‘assistant’, huffing a little “-then we wouldn’t have wasted all these ingredients. 

Lance patted Pidge on the head. “C’mon, what can go wrong? We didn’t use that much anyways.” He then looks at the recipe and finally understands what a quilado is. “And what’s with you and the word ‘assistant’?”

Pidge doesn’t answer, but he notices how she inches away from him. He’s a little hurt seeing this, but he buries the sadness. You’re just overthinking, he thinks to himself. 

Pidge looks at the ingredients on the table, hands crossed and on the table, propping her up as she leans on the table. “I-”

Before she can finish, however, Hunk barges in, huffing and puffing. “I smell something burning!”

Lance sniffs the air for a whiff of something burning, and Hunk is right. He looks behind to see grey smoke coming out from the oven. His cake is inside!

Rushing towards the oven, he takes out the cake and pouts at how black and hard it has become. 

Keith and Shiro comes running in, eyes fixed onto the cake he’s holding. 

Keith straightens up, crossing his arms. “Is that… for me?”

Pidge gives an awkward smile. Not going as planned, she thinks, trying her best to find a solution to fix the problem, but it’s all lost when Lance replies with a “yes”.

Keith looks at Shiro, eyebrows raised and Shiro shrugs. 

“Happy Birthday…?” Pidge says with weak jazz hands. 

Something at the corner of Lance’s cake falls to the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might not continue this because this was really rushed and i have exAMS


	6. Sickfic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be cute and stuff where Lance and Pidge are together but then I decided... angst is better.
> 
> Unedited

If people think Lance being sick will make him distance himself away from Pidge, they’re underestimating him. In fact, it makes him even more clingy.

“Pidge,” he sniffles as he pops his head out from a small opening of his blanket that bundles him like a burrito. “Do you really not have a temporary cure? It sucks being sick.” He sneezes and sniffles once again.

_It does suck being sick._

Pidge wants to groan but she swallows it in, typing away on her computer. Although a little annoyed by his attachment to her, she actually likes his company- if he could probably stay quiet.

“I’m searching for it now.”

The others had gone off to find the ingredients, and Pidge is stuck because Lance keeps whining whenever she moves into a different room from him.

“It’s not going to spread to anyone right?”

Pidge shakes her head as she scans through a few blocks of paragraph on this strange alien flu. Thankfully, Allura said it shouldn’t harm humans as badly as it does to Alteans, but she still wants to be cautious. “No. Not an airborne disease.” she replies after a while and sighs. She takes a break from staring at the screen and finally looks at Lance. His face is red and he’s shivering slightly from the cold.

Apparently, it’s spread is through touch, even if Lance has been sneezing and coughing, so Lance stays a few meters away from Pidge, watching her work with half-lid eyes.

“Why don’t you sleep,” she suggests as she types more things into her laptop. “You shouldn’t force yourself to stay awake.”

Lance makes an inaudible groan and she hears shuffling of blankets and the faint sound of footsteps. There is a huff, and Lance is beside Pidge, eyeing her computer. There is a small distance between and Pidge swears she would have held his hand if it wasn’t for the disease. If it wasn’t for the fact Lance liked Allura too, Pidge would have been less angry to have him around.

Gosh damn, she’s starting to feel sick thinking about Lance’s crush on Allura. She dives deeper into her work, trying to hide Lance from the corner of her eye and just work. Ignore the facts she wants to ignore and find the facts she wants to find.

His soft (and a little husky) breathing reverberates in her ears and she’s tensing when Lance leans in a little. “What does this say?” he squints at the screen, pouting a little.

Pidge feels a hodgepodge of emotions rise in her chest.

 _He likes Allura_ , she thinks. Correction: reminders herself.

Then why does he insist on hanging out with you? A voice retaliates. It sparks a small sense of hope in her, but soon she slams it down deep into her guts like how she slams her laptop’s screen shut. “Lance-” she hisses “-I’m trying to work.”

Lance gives her a sleepy look of confusion, blue eyes she tries her very best not to stare for too long, veiled by droopy eyelids. He’s not moving, mouth opening a little to say something but he closes it.

“I need to go,” Pidge gets up, packing her things as she stands and stomps away. She’s hoping for Lance to call for her to stop - a sign to turn back and stay with him like he did when she wanted to go on the mission with the others - but he doesn’t. She lingers at the door, slowly turning back and she sees Lance fast asleep.

Her heart drops and she gulps down a lump that’s forming in her throat. She repeats the facts she knows all too well - Lance likes Allura, not me - and her stomach twists into a knot. She feelings like vomiting a bit but she ignores that feeling and walks away to the common room to research more on the disease before going to check on him again.

She sighs.

 

~~_-_ ~~

 

When Lance wakes up from his (thankfully) dreamless sleep, he’s in a dark room. The last memory he has before passing out was Pidge beside him, typing away on her computer, but now she’s gone. A cold chill runs down his back and he stands abruptly. A steady throb is at the back of his head but he doesn’t care. The only thing he cares about right now is Pidge, because she’s missing.

She couldn’t have gone far, but what if she did? How long did he knock out? He staggers a little when he’s on his feet, making his way to the exit of the room.

He knows it’s a little silly to believe a dream, but it feels so real, he’s worried she’ll really get herself hurt.

“Pidge?”

His voice comes out weak and cracks a little. He clears his throat, calling out her name again.

“I’m here.”

It’s faint, but Pidge’s distinguishable voice makes Lance’s worries shimmer down. He exhales a small sigh of relief as she makes his way towards the common room.

Pidge has a tray of green goo and a bottle of water, along with some damp cloths. She looks at Lance with an eyebrow raised. “Aren’t you supposed to rest?”

Lance smiles when he sees the girl and he shakes his head. “I’m rested well enough.”

Pidge can see through his lie and scoffs.

The air is stale and the tension between them grows thick. Pidge is fidgeting with the tray and avoiding eye contact, a subtle scowl on her face.

Lance wants to ask her what’s up, but he decides he shouldn’t, knowing very well Pidge will just tell him “It’s nothing” and it’ll be an endless game of cat and mouse. Instead, he takes a few steps forward, and wraps his arms around her.

“Don’t go,” he says as a small flash of his nightmare arises back to his conscious thinking.

Pidge drops the tray as Lance hugs her, and on usual terms she would shove him away (and it makes more sense to do so when Lance is sick and she’ll eventually become sick too), but instead she hugs him back.

Even if it’s a short-lived moment, Pidge enjoyed it. Lance pulls away grinning and tapping on the tip of her nose. “Guess you’re going to sick now, so you’re stuck with me.”

Pidge narrows her eyes and attempts to kick him, but he dodges it with a little difficulty. Still, he dodged it.

Pidge looks at the ground, the contents of the tray spilled all over the floor. Some of the goo are on her shoes and she clicks her tongue. “I’ll be back,” she says as she bends to clean the mess and Lance nods.

“I’ll see you back at the room then?” he gives her his signature smile (not as bright though. A little strained) and sloppy finger guns before wobbling back to the room. He’s feeling better after that hug with Pidge. At least she won’t die like she did in his nightmares. He will protect her. It might have been his fault, but he will make sure she’ll never end up with the same fate as the Pidge in his dreams.

He won’t let it happen.

 

~~_-_ ~~

 

Pidge isn’t sure if it’s the sickness kicking in, but she’s already feeling more sick than before. She’s got a heavy heart and now a big headache to deal with. She’s clutching her chest a little, finding it a tad bit difficult to breathe, but it’s just because of her blocked nose. Tears build up in her eyes and she sniffles. She can’t cry. Usually, facts calms her down, so she says all the facts she can in her head.

The earth is round, the ocean is blue, Lance’s eyes are blue.

Lance likes Allura, not her.

She can feel herself slowly dissociating as she just stares at the ground, tears falling.

It’s painful to know that Lance doesn’t like her, but treats her in such a way. How unfair. How injusticely. Why did he claim he wanted to keep her close to him, what did that hug mean, why?

Pidge’s biggest irritation is questions with answers she’ll never have.

She takes a deep breath, rubbing her eyes clear away from the tears and stands up. She might not be physically sick - yet - but she’s already feeling sick inside.

  
Oh gosh, she wishes so badly for a cure for the side effects of love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is talking about plangst but what about pangstance??? ~~i'm lame, i know~~


End file.
